First reported last month, a six-minute prologue to The Dark Knight Rises is going debut with Paramount Pictures' early release of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in IMAX theaters on December 16 (the film has its general release on Dec. 21). Today, confirmation arrives that the footage even has an MPAA rating. It's going to be PG-13 for "some violence".

The plan matches the screening situation in December 2007 where The Dark Knight attached its opening sequence to IMAX prints of I Am Legend.

The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters on July 20, 2012.

(comingsoon.net)

MfG

Maestro

_________________

"Being President is easy: You just point the army and shoot." - Homer J. Simpson

Publicity for The Dark Knight Rises has kicked into high gear with press screenings of the the IMAX prologue, the viral Operation Early Bird and the release of a brand-new teaser poster over the weekend. Today, The LA Times had the opportunity to speak with director Christopher Nolan about the highly-anticipated release, discussing the reasons for choosing Bane as the film's primary villain.

"I didn't know him very well," says Nolan of the comic book iteration of Bane. "David Goyer got me a bunch of stuff on him and we looked into him. I only knew him by name, I wasn't familiar with his back story. He's a very cool character. And getting an actor like Tom to take it on, you know you're going to get something very special. Tom is somebody who really knows how to put character into every gesture, every aspect of his physicality in the way that great actors can... With Bane, the physicality is the thing. With a good villain you need an archetype, you know, you need the extreme of some type of villainy. The Joker is obviously a particular archetype of diabolical, chaotic anarchy and has a devilish sense of humor. Bane, to me, is something we haven't dealt with in the films. We wanted to do something very different in this film. He's a primarily physical villain, he's a classic movie monster in a way — but with a terrific brain. I think he's a fascinating character. I think people are going to get a kick out of what we've done with him."

Nolan also discussed the jump forward in time that fans will experience between the The Dark Knight film and The Dark Knight Rises. As was previously announced, the new film will take place eight years after the end of the 2008 film.

"It will make a lot more sense to people when they see the film," Nolan explains. "But it's not a great mystery — it's the jumping-off point for the film — but it's hard for me to articulate it. I think the mood at the beginning of the film will make a lot of sense. If I had to express it thematically, I think what we're saying is that for Batman and Commissioner Gordon, there's a big sacrifice, a big compromise, at the end of the 'The Dark Knight' and for that to mean something, that sacrifice has to work and Gotham has to get better in a sense. They have to achieve something for the ending of that film — and the feeling at the end of that film — to have validity. Their sacrifice has to have meaning and it takes time to establish that and to show that, and that’s the primary reason we did that. It's a time period that is not so far ahead that we would have to do crazy makeup or anything — which I think would be distracting — but it gave them something to get their teeth into, particularly Christian in terms of [portraying] this guy who has been frozen in this moment in time with nowhere to go. He really has done an incredible job figuring out how to characterize that and express that."

Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane has ripped away any sense of security and the citizens, haggard and clutching suitcases with refugee anxiety, sit behind barbed wire waiting to see what will blow up next. A hooded prisoner is dragged in – it's Bruce Wayne, one of Gotham's most famous faces – but the eyes of the crowd go instead to the woman in black standing at the top of the staircase.

"Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself," says sultry Selina Kyle, played here by actress Anne Hathaway, navigating the steps with stiletto heels that, on closer inspection, turn out to have serrated edges capable of leaving nasty claw marks in a fight. She also wears high-tech goggles that, when not in use, flip up and resemble feline ears.

You can read what Hathaway said about playing the character by clicking here. The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters on July 20.

(comingsoon.net)

MfG

Maestro

_________________

"Being President is easy: You just point the army and shoot." - Homer J. Simpson

It has long been rumored that Liam Neeson returned to film a scene for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, but now Neeson himself has spilled the beans.

"I can tell you nothing about Dark Knight Rises, seriously," Neeson told ShowbizSpy. "I was on set for maybe an hour-and-a-half and the director didn’t tell me anything of what it's about. So, I'm being very honest when I say I have no idea what's going to happen."

Neeson played villain Ra's al Ghul in Nolan's Batman Begins, which hit theaters in 2005. Perhaps the scene is a flashback? We'll have to wait and see on July 20.

As fans already know from the six-minute prologue to July 20th's The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy's Bane is going to act as a major threat to the caped crusader. In an interview with EW, the actor discusses his take on Bane, comparing him to the clown prince of crime that Batman faced in 2008's The Dark Knight.

“The Joker didn’t care," Hardy explains. "He just wanted to see the world burn, and he was a master of chaos and destruction, unscrupulous and crazy. Bane is not that guy. There is a very meticulous and calculated way about Bane. There is a huge orchestration of organization to his ambition. He is also a physical threat to Batman. There is nothing vague about Bane. No jokes. He’s a very clean, clear villain.”

After wowing audiences with the IMAX portions of The Dark Knight in 2008, Christopher Nolan is back behind the 65mm lens for July 20th's The Dark Knight Rises which, The Wall Street Journal today revealed, will include over an hour of IMAX footage, making it the biggest use of the format in a Hollywood film.

Nolan, who spoke about IMAX at length in an interview last week, isn't the only director keen on the format. Last year's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol also included scenes designed specifically for IMAX viewing while quite a few entries this summer have been designed to be shown in IMAX theaters even without having shot on 65mm. Last week it was announced that The Hunger Games will return for a week-long IMAX run before theaters switch over to the next major release, Marvel's The Avengers.

View next topicView previous topic
You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum